Posted at Midwest Chick’s Place:
Monthly Archives: February 2025
People Who Live Or Work In New York City Will Cheer This
On Wednesday, The New York Post reported that the much-hated congestion toll in New York City will be going away. The Department of Transportation (DOT) under President Trump has pulled the previous approval of the toll.
The article reports:
New York City’s spectacularly unpopular congestion pricing scheme is on death row as the Trump administration announced Wednesday it is pulling its approval of the toll — slamming it as “backwards and unfair” — in a major blow to Gov. Kathy Hochul, The Post has learned.
The US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration terminated the approval of the controversial program, according to a letter Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent to Hochul on Wednesday afternoon.
“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners,” said Duffy, noting that commuters entering NYC have already financed the construction and improvement of city roadways through their taxes.
“But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair,” he said, blasting the program as harmful to small businesses in the Big Apple that depend on customers from New Jersey and Connecticut.
I have a nephew (who has since moved to North Carolina) that worked in New York City in the motion picture industry. The toll would have resulted in more than $100 a week in commuting expenses. There were times when he needed to bring his truck into the City for his job, and the extra expense would be a problem. The people paying this toll are not the people who can afford it–they are the working people who are afraid to ride the subways because of safety issues. During the 1960’s, I rode the subway every day when I commuted to school, but I wouldn’t want to ride it now. This tax needed to go away, and I applaud Secretary Duffy for ending it. Also, some serious effort needs to be made to clean up the subways and make them safer.
Let The Savings Begin
Our bloated national budget has needed slashing for some time now. We are seeing the Department of Government Efficiency identify serious waste and possible fraud. Hopefully, that waste will disappear in the budget that will be passed by Congress in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article about some of that waste that can be eliminated.
The article reports:
On Monday, the Department of Education (ED) announced that it would be cutting another $600 million in taxpayer funding that had been used to promote “divisive” and “inappropriate” left-wing ideologies, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
According to Fox News, the funding was primarily through grants to support programs in favor of DEI and other far-left ideas, including “instruction on White privilege and White supremacy.” The $600 million cut follows the announcement of another drastic cut of $370 million in DEI training for the department, after Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered such wasteful and partisan spending.
The $600 million in funding was targeted due to “requiring practitioners to take personal and institutional responsibility for systemic inequities (e.g., racism) and critically reassess their own practices,” the ED revealed. It had also funded “spaces for critical reflection to help educators confront biases and have transformative conversations about equity,” and other initiatives that focused on “building historical and sociopolitical understandings of race and racism to interrupt racial marginalization and oppression of students in planning, instruction, relationship building, discipline and assessment.”
America spends more money per pupil on education than any other country in the world, and we get the least for our money. It’s time to go back to teaching our children the skills they need to navigate the world as adults–reading, writing, basic mathematics, how to balance a checkbook, how to prepare a budget, how to fill out a job application, and maybe some obsolete skills like how to read a map. We can teach them computer skills also, but we need to remember that the generation born in the past twenty or thirty years is probably more adept at using computers than the people teaching them. Let’s make sure our children have the basic tools that will allow them to learn throughout life rather than indoctrinating them in philosophies that will hinder them rather than help them.
This Shouldn’t Surprise Anyone
On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been spending its money.
The article reports:
Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Doug Collins confirmed that the Biden administration’s VA diverted “manpower” away from Veteran Care (VC) to help illegal migrants obtain health care.
In an interview with Andrew Wilkow of the Wilkow Majority on SiriusXM Patriot, the new VA secretary revealed that after stepping into the role earlier this month he found instances of time being used to “process health applications and stuff” for illegals:
The article explains:
“Did the VA, under the previous administration, move resources away from Veteran Care into benefits for illegals… Did it happen, or are we going to look into it?” Wilkow asked Collins, who served as a Republican U.S. congressman from Georgia from 2013 to 2021.
“I think what we’ve found…not maybe much invested, but — We actually took time away from what I’ll call Veteran Care to process health applications and stuff, is what we’ve seemed to find, and we’re still looking into this,” Collins replied. “That’s going to stop.”
“I mean, I know they weren’t putting illegals in Walter Reed —,” Wilkow added.
Collins responded, “No, no, no, but there was a use of resources that were going to help process this mass claim. It could be better directed.”
Again clarifying that illegal migrants were not receiving medical procedures from VA hospitals, Wilkow asked if VA “manpower may have been used” to help illegal aliens.
“Yeah, that’s what we’ve seen so far,” Collins confirmed.
All Veterans Affairs resources should be used for veterans. We have no obligation to people who are here illegally and have broken our laws to be here. How many veterans have waited long periods of time to get the services that they needed and were entitled to because the administrative arm of the Veterans Administration was directed elsewhere?
Where Did The Money Go?
Every person who has ever been involved in bookkeeping, personal or otherwise, understands that expenses have codes or memo lines. Even in Quicken, which I use for my own checkbook, there is a place to put the purpose of the money spent. Well, evidently our government is not really into good accounting practices.
On Monday, The Gateway Pundit reported the following:
On Monday, Elon Musk’s DOGE revealed the federal government didn’t trace $4.7 trillion in payments.
$4.7 trillion dollars in payments were left blank, making it nearly impossible to trace, DOGE said.
“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),” DOGE explained in a post on X.
“In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going. Thanks to US Treasury for the great work,” DOGE said.
The article also notes:
Last Wednesday Real America’s Voice White House reporter Brian Glenn asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about the trillions in fraudulent Medicaid and Medicare payments that have been going overseas.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) held her DOGE subcommittee hearing earlier in the day and announced the group’s findings. The subcommittee has found $2.7 trillion in improper and fraudulent government payments since forming their subcommittee.
This number came from a report late last year on government waste.
I applaud DOGE for the work they are doing and hope that it will translate into government efficiency and eventually lower taxes and expenses for Americans.
Quote Of The Day
You can always count on Senator Kennedy from Louisiana for a good quote.
On Tuesday, Red State quoted Senator Kennedy who was sharing his advice to the Democrat Party:
“Look, you just gotta try harder not to suck,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy elaborated, saying that Democrats spent the past four years mismanaging everything they were put in charge of, including congress, the pandemic, the economy, Afghanistan, and more. Now, with Trump and Musk ripping through the government to trim away the fat and corruption, they’re going out of their way to side with bureaucracy.
This is one of those losing “80/20” positions Scott Jennings talked about a while back, but Democrats can’t stop themselves from automatically taking the opposite position that Trump is at every turn.
Kennedy continues by noting the Democrat Party’s support for illegal immigration and transgendered people in women’s sports, and sympathize with Hamas, which are just more 80/20 positions Democrats can’t seem to stop advocating for.
“The party is being controlled, right now, by people who majored in online activism with a minor in puberty blockers,” said Kennedy. “I know these people. They think men can breastfeed!”
“Most fair-minded Americans look at this, and they go, ‘these people are about ten exits past normal!” he added.
It’s hard to believe the Democrats are fighting to keep the corruption in Washington going.
Just A Small Part Of The Problem
Elon Musk shared this on X:
These are the ages of people currently listed on the Social Security payment list. It is unclear how many of them are actually receiving Social Security checks. I personally would like to interview one of the 300-plus-year-old people to find out their longevity secrets.
On Monday, The Daily Caller reported:
“I’ve been fighting fake news reporters all day long here in the Washington D.C. swamp who are trying to fear monger the American people into believing that this administration is going after their hard earned tax dollars and their hard earned Social Security checks,” Leavitt (White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt) said to host Sean Hannity. “So I want to set the record straight on your show tonight, Sean, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do so. President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration.”
“They haven’t dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments. So their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things,” Leavitt added.
…Leavitt went on to describe DOGE’s and Musk’s main goal regarding the SSA’s potential waste, saying that the “legacy fake news” was attempting to “fear” people into believing the Trump administration had other motives.
“Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them. Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money,” Leavitt said. “Number three, to protect the integrity of this system for hard working Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives. So, rest assured to all of the people watching your show tonight, if you paid into the system, honestly, you will continue to receive your Social Security tax checks.”
It is definitely time to make sure that everyone entitled to get payments from Social Security gets them and that everyone who is not entitled to get payments from Social Security does not get them.
It Pays To Check The Facts Before You Lecture
On Saturday, Townhall posted an article that essentially fact-checked a recent statement by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Rachel Maddow was criticizing President Donald Trump for giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The only problem with the criticism was that the contract was not awarded under President Trump, but under President Biden.
The article reports:
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has once again found herself in hot water after making false claims about President Donald Trump giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The liberal pundit, known for her questionable takes and liberal meltdowns, fabricated this narrative despite no evidence to back up the allegation. This latest misstep only adds to the growing list of inaccuracies from Maddow and other left-wing media figures attempting to distort the truth to discredit Trump and Musk.
…Although Maddow accused Musk of “self-dealing” regarding the multi-million dollar armored Tesla deal, she neglected to mention that the procurement list was revised under Biden on December 13, 2024— several weeks before Trump took office. The State Department stated that the Biden administration had requested it to explore options for adding armor to off-the-shelf electric vehicles, and the project was still in its initial phases.
Anyone who still watches the mainstream media and believes what it says is not only uninformed–they are misinformed.
U.S. vs Chinese Navy
Author: R. Alan Harrop, PhD.
Many military experts believe that if there is a conflict between the U.S. and China, the outcome will be settled by naval forces. Given the location of China, this makes sense, and it may be a repeat of World War II, where our overwhelming naval forces defeated Japan.
Assuming that this analysis is correct, a comparative assessment of the status of the navies of each country is appropriate. Most authorities believe that the U.S. Navy is still superior to the Chinese navy, but that superiority is shrinking. The Chinese have been rapidly increasing their number of ships over the past ten years. They currently have 340 naval ships compared to 280 in the US Navy. We still have a superiority in large aircraft carriers– eleven compared with China, which now has three. Similarly, we have a greater number of submarines. One area of concern is the rapidly increasing lethality of missiles, especially supersonic types. These missiles will make large aircraft carriers difficult, if not impossible, to defend adequately. In many ways, the aircraft carrier fleet was what allowed us to defeat Japan; whereas, the battleship which was dominant in an earlier era was no longer effective. Could this be the case for aircraft carriers in future conflicts?
The rate of increase in the Chinese navy should be of concern. Last year, China built 30 new naval vessels while the US built 2. Construction capacity is always a concerning factor. During WWII, the industrial capacity of the United States far exceeded any other country. The US was truly the arsenal of democracy. For example, at the beginning of WWII with the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, both the US and Japan had eight aircraft carriers each. In the next four years, Japan built 18 new carriers (of various sizes) while the US built an astounding 144. China currently has 20 large shipyards that build both naval and merchant craft. The US has only 4 similar shipyards.
Another area of significant Chinese expansion is their merchant marine fleet. They now own over 50% of merchant shipping in the world, far exceeding the size of the merchant fleets of Japan and South Korea, which are their closest competitors. A large merchant fleet of container ships and tankers not only allows China to ship needed supplies and fuel to combat areas, but provides a large resource of trained seaman if needed for their navy.
China has also been making a concerted effort to operate and control seaports around the globe. They invest in existing ports and thereby obtain control of those vital stations. For example, the Chinese just made a large financial deal with Belgium which will allow them to dominate the port of Zeebrugge, the second largest port in that country. They are doing this around the world, including the east and west entrances to the Panama Canal, which President Trump recently targeted as an unacceptable threat to the security of the US. Also, even US ports are now using Chinese ship loading and unloading equipment.
China clearly has plans to dominate the world’s oceans and trade. Finally, we have a President who is willing to recognize and deal with this realty before it is too late.
Reversing A Bad Decision
There are still a lot of questions about the Covid-19 vaccine. There are questions about its effectiveness and its risks. It was rushed through as an emergency measure with the claim that we had no effective cure for Covid. It seems that there may have been a cure that was squelched. I am not a doctor, so I can’t say for sure, but many reputable doctors have claimed that ivermectin cures Covid. The restrictions that were put on the unvaccinated were unfair. The masks were ineffective, and according to one pulmonary specialist I have talked to, interfered with basic immune function and led to a spike in pneumonia cases. So the bottom line is that we have more questions than answers. That is what makes President Trump’s Executive Order on funding schools with vaccine mandates a reasonable action.
On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday cutting off federal funding to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, fulfilling a promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail.
“OK, that solves that problem,” said Trump after he signed the order in the Oval Office.
The order prohibits “federal funds from being used to support” any educational institution “that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.”
In many places, the vaccine was reserved for the elderly and those who had some sort of medical condition. School-age students generally were able to survive Covid, develop natural immunity, and go on with their lives.
The article concludes:
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has emerged as one of the Senate’s most passionate supporters of Trump’s and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, told The Daily Signal that he wholeheartedly supported the move to grant parents more control over their children’s health care.
“Mandating the COVID injections for anyone, much less children, was an outrage and violated the principle of informed consent,” said Johnson. “Ending what never should have happened is obviously welcome.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who in 2021 voted to block then-President Joe Biden’s attempts to mandate vaccines for millions of workers, likewise praised the move.
“I fully agree with President Trump’s decision to stop federal funds from going to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Lummis in a statement given to The Daily Signal.
“This type of unscientific overreach is a blatant violation of Americans’ personal freedoms and has no place in schools supported by the American taxpayer,” she said.
Because the government was able to send the American people into a panic, many of our Constitutional freedoms were ignored. We cannot let that happen again.
Giving Freedom Back To Consumers
On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that President Trump will direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Secretary Lee Zeldin to begin reversing water standard regulations on household appliances including sinks, dishwashers, showers and washing machines. Notice that these are not laws that President Trump is amending–these are regulations passed by unelected bureaucrats.
The article reports:
“I am hereby instructing Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc., and to likewise go back to the common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS, that were put in place by the Trump Administration, but terminated by Crooked Joe,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post. “I look forward to signing these Orders. THANK YOU!!!”
Former President Joe Biden introduced various green energy regulations as part of his signature climate agenda, including tightening energy efficiency regulations on a range of household appliances including dishwashers, gas stoves, light bulbs and water heaters.
The article concludes:
The president also signed an executive order on Jan. 20 to “unleash” America’s “affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.”
“In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens,” Trump stated in the executive order. “These high energy costs devastate American consumers by driving up the cost of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing, while weakening our national security.”
American consumers are perfectly capable of making their own decisions on stoves, water heaters, washing machines, etc. The government does not have to supervise their purchases.
Behind The Scenes
President Trump’s positive approval records have not ended the opposition to what he is doing. The screamers are still there, but they are working beneath the surface. It is important to look at what is going on behind the scenes–to watch where money is coming from and where it is going.
On Saturday, The Geller Report reported the following:
Mark Zuckerberg funneled two billion into a foundation that’s bankrolling lawsuits against Trump. So Zuckerberg sicced the NY Times on the investigative reporter who broke the story.
Silicon Valley Community Foundation has given over $4 MILLION to Protect Democracy, who’s taking Trump to court to stop DOGE.
…This foundation has funded the ACLU, Brennan Center, Planned Parenthood, SPLC, and many other radical left-wing groups, including those behind the efforts to keep President Trump off the ballot in 2024.
And the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has given hundreds of millions of dollars to explicitly left-wing causes (including rigging election administration…)
The article includes a number of screenshots of various X posts dealing with the scandal. Frankly, if Mark Zuckerberg makes any attempt to join the Trump train, he needs to be escorted out the door!
An Island Is Drowning?
Recently, Anthony Watts at WattsUpWithThat posted an article about the island of Cartí Sugdupu in Panama. The BBC recently posted an article claiming that the island is sinking because of climate change. Evidently, that is not the case.
The article reports:
The BBC’s recent article “Climate change: The Panama community that fled its drowning island,” claims that the island of Cartí Sugdupu in Panama is being swallowed by rising sea levels due to climate change. This is false. The reality is that the island’s inhabitants are not being forced to relocate because of rising oceans, but due to overcrowding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of resources—issues that have nothing to do with climate change. Furthermore, real-world examples and peer-reviewed research contradict the idea that small islands are disappearing due to rising seas. Instead, many islands are growing, adapting, and naturally shifting over time. The BBC’s report is misleading at best, deliberately deceptive at worst.
Cartí Sugdupu is one of Panama’s San Blas Islands, home to the indigenous Guna people. The BBC’s article, painting a picture of climate-induced displacement, completely ignores the fact that the island is severely overcrowded, with more than 1,000 people packed into a tiny space of just 0.028 square miles. That’s a population density higher than New York City! The primary reason the residents are moving is not rising sea levels, but poor living conditions, lack of fresh water, and a shortage of space—issues that have been pressing for decades.
The article concludes:
The real reason for the relocation of Cartí Sugdupu’s residents has nothing to do with climate change. Instead, it comes down to basic infrastructure challenges:
- Overpopulation – As seen in the head photograph, the island is overcrowded, with nowhere to expand. Unlike coral atolls that naturally grow, Cartí Sugdupu is an isolated, heavily inhabited island with no room for additional housing or development.
- Lack of Freshwater and Sanitation – Many small islands struggle with freshwater availability. The BBC ignores this and instead attributes all hardships to climate change.
- Economic and Government Decisions – Panama’s government is relocating the residents as part of a planned move, not an emergency evacuation due to rising waters.
The BBC’s reporting is a prime example of climate alarmism dressed up as journalism, with the organization pushing a narrative, while ignoring crucial facts. Rather than investigating the real reasons behind Cartí Sugdupu’s relocation—overpopulation, lack of infrastructure, and government decisions—the BBC misleadingly claims climate change is forcing its residents to relocate. It is the government that has made that decision, and not because the seas are rising at a historically unusual rate. The BBC ignores peer-reviewed research disproving its claim that islands are disappearing, fails to mention historical sea level trends, and omits crucial local factors that explain the island’s challenges. This isn’t objective reporting—it is activism disguised as news. The BBC’s audience deserves better, it deserves the truth.
Please follow the link to the article. At the top of the article is a picture, I believe, of the island. There isn’t even enough space on that island to breathe! This is another incident where a media outlet has chosen a narrative over actual facts.
Quote Of The Week
Posted at Breitbart on Saturday:
Maher (HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher) said, “I do know this, because this comes from the Government Accountability Office, that’s not the Trump administration, the federal government loses an estimated 233 to 521 billion annually to fraud.”
He continued, “So, when Trump fired, — the first thing he did [is fire] all the inspectors general. And I thought, well, that’s not good, that’s their job to watchdog stuff. But if you’re losing $521 billion a year, how good are you watchdogging? You’ve got to — I’m not saying we should have fired them.”
Scandal Central
On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article about some of the scandals we have seen in recent years.
The article includes a list:
All four of the biggest scandals in U.S. history have happened in just the past few years:
(a) the cover-up of Joe Biden’s decline;
(b) lawfare against Trump;
(c) the cover-up of Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling, and now; and
(d) billions wasted, by not just the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), but also by many other agencies, and being uncovered by Elon Musk’s DOGE.
In this writer’s opinion, it’s all a series of causes and desired effects. The Democrat party Deep State (DPDS) loathe Trump. They used every trick in their trick bag, from “Russia collusion” to lawfare to assassination attempts, to beat him and present Hillary, then Biden, then Kamala as a superior candidate. The scams are the “why.”
The worst example is the vanishing migrant children. Some of the NGOs getting contracts from Team Biden to house unaccompanied minors (now known as “child-trafficking victims”) were getting multi-billion-dollar contracts. Over 300,000 of those children have simply vanished.
The article notes:
USAID, created by a JFK executive order in 1961, was intended to steer foreign aid in a manner that benefited America’s national interests. Instead, it’s been scattering taxpayers’ billions like candy at a Santa Claus parade, for any left-wing initiative (or terrorist group) that raised its ugly head and extended its tentacles.
Billions of dollars have vanished, so USAID has been shut down, and it’s being audited. What was created by executive order can be stopped by executive order, despite the caterwauling from DPDS propaganda minions that it’s “illegal.”
They spent $40 million on HIV medications for transgender hookers in South Africa, $47,000 on a trans opera in Colombia, $2 million on sex changes and LGBT initiatives in Guatemala, and $1.5 million to promote DIE in Serbia. They spent $8 million to study the “effect of flavored cigarettes on bisexuals and lesbians” and another $8 million to train Sri Lankan journalists to avoid using “binary-gendered language.” Then there’s the $20 million for a Sesame Street TV show in Iraq.
The article concludes:
We can only infer that all these scandals are a series of causes and desired effects. Thus, they’re one gigantic scandal, making Watergate look as though Nixon deserved only a stern reprimand.
Everybody apparently got his cut of the billions in loot. Biden pardoned the top-level offenders.
A Hollywood studio would make a lot of money with documentaries on all this. Producers could track down perpetrators — from the $130 billion missing in Ukraine to a $70,000 DIE musical in Ireland to the $32,000 for trans comic books in Peru to the electric vehicles in other countries — and document, on film, any measurable results.
This writer’s guess is that the actual results are either nonexistent or very tiny and symbolic, to provide a façade camouflaging what really happened to most of that money.
Then, at the end of each documentary, the producers could track down Democrats who approved each of the pallets of cash bulldozed out the door, and show each Democrat’s net worth “before” and “after.” Viewers could draw their own conclusions.
They could start with every Biden pardon recipient, and the 51 intel executives who signed the “Russian disinformation” letter, with zero evidence.
Such a series of documentaries would be cheap to produce and well received. It would surely make millions. But it counters Hollywood’s Prime Directive (“Never say anything bad about a Democrat”), and it makes too much sense. Perhaps some independent studio could strike gold with such documentaries.
For now, every member of Team Trump should start every interview by speaking directly to American voters: “If you ever vote for a Democrat again, you need your head examined.”
And I have a feeling we have only scratched the surface!
American Voters Are Smarter Than Some People Think They Are
Politico just lost a lost of money it was getting from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Is it possible that now their reporting will be more balanced? The article below might be an indication of that!
On Tuesday, Politico posted an article about the gap between the numbers the government was posting about the economy and the public’s perception of the economy during the run-up to the 2024 election.
The article reports:
Before the presidential election, many Democrats were puzzled by the seeming disconnect between “economic reality” as reflected in various government statistics and the public’s perceptions of the economy on the ground. Many in Washington bristled at the public’s failure to register how strong the economy really was. They charged that right-wing echo chambers were conning voters into believing entirely preposterous narratives about America’s decline.
What they rarely considered was whether something else might be responsible for the disconnect — whether, for instance, government statistics were fundamentally flawed. What if the numbers supporting the case for broad-based prosperity were themselves misrepresentations? What if, in fact, darker assessments of the economy were more authentically tethered to reality?
The discrepancy between what Americans were dealing with economically and what the government was telling them may not have been intentional, but it was hidden in the way the government statistics were calculated.
The article explains:
I don’t believe those who went into this past election taking pride in the unemployment numbers understood that the near-record low unemployment figures — the figure was a mere 4.2 percent in November — counted homeless people doing occasional work as “employed.” But the implications are powerful. If you filter the statistic to include as unemployed people who can’t find anything but part-time work or who make a poverty wage (roughly $25,000), the percentage is actually 23.7 percent. In other words, nearly one of every four workers is functionally unemployed in America today — hardly something to celebrate.
The article also notes the problem with the way the inflation numbers were calculated:
But the CPI also perceives reality through a very rosy looking glass. Those with modest incomes purchase only a fraction of the 80,000 goods the CPI tracks, spending a much greater share of their earnings on basics like groceries, health care and rent. And that, of course, affects the overall figure: If prices for eggs, insurance premiums and studio apartment leases rise at a faster clip than those of luxury goods and second homes, the CPI underestimates the impact of inflation on the bulk of Americans. That, of course, is exactly what has happened.
My colleagues and I have modeled an alternative indicator, one that excludes many of the items that only the well-off tend to purchase — and tend to have more stable prices over time — and focuses on the measurements of prices charged for basic necessities, the goods and services that lower- and middle-income families typically can’t avoid. Here again, the results reveal how the challenges facing those with more modest incomes are obscured by the numbers. Our alternative indicator reveals that, since 2001, the cost of living for Americans with modest incomes has risen 35 percent faster than the CPI. Put another way: The resources required simply to maintain the same working-class lifestyle over the last two decades have risen much more dramatically than we’ve been led to believe.
A good statistician can get statistics to say anything he wants them to say, but Americans are smart enough to look at how far their paychecks are going rather than believing all of the statistics.
Interest Payments
A friend of mine sent me this:
From Don Surber:
Where A Lot Of The Money Went
On Thursday, The New York Post posted an article about how much money the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent on migrants from 2020 to 2024.
The article reports:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ramped up grants for migrants from 2020 to 2024 — which included cash assistance to buy cars, homes and even build credit for startup businesses, according to a shocking watchdog report that found taxpayers were left on the hook for $22.6 billion.
HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — which came under fire last year for having lost track of 32,000 migrant kids in the US — handed out the high sum to a host of nonprofits, effectively acting as a “giant magnet” for those crossing the US border and claiming asylum, auditors from the money monitor OpenTheBooks revealed exclusively to The Post.
Tasked with settling migrants, asylum seekers and other refugees in America, ORR drastically increased the number of noncitizens eligible to receive funding over the bulk of President Joe Biden’s term, with more than $10 billion shelled out to grant-receiving organizations just in fiscal year 2023.
…Non-governmental groups bilked taxpayers for up to $1.7 billion in services including dollar-for-dollar matching savings plans for cars, homes, college educations or startups; small-business loans of up to $15,000; loans to repair credit history of up to $1,500; “cultural orientation,” “emergency housing support,” legal assistance and Medicaid care.
Some programs were only available to migrants or refugees who had been living in the US for several years, who were employed or who were making around double the federal poverty level or less, among other stipulations.
The article concludes:
Hart (OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart) slammed ORR’s treatment of migrant kids and said it had revealed “the Left’s counterfeit compassion around immigration.”
“Losing track of 300,000 children violates their dignity and puts them at risk,” he said.
In its report, OpenTheBooks claimed Dunn Marcos’ past work for nonprofits receiving ORR grants posed a “conflict of interest.”
Reps for Dunn Marcos’ office said in a statement that after being appointed in September 2022, she had recused herself from approving funding for any past employer.
…OpenTheBooks nevertheless submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to ORR’s parent office, the Administration for Children and Families, where Dunn Marcos served until recently. Email bouncebacks, the group noted, suggest she departed government service after President Trump took office Jan. 20.
“While Dunn Marcos may have disappeared from ORR, our questions remain over whether certain nonprofit organizations received special treatment amid the billions in grants furnished by the government office,” the group’s report concludes.
“What’s clear is that ORR has funded a constellation of NGOs deployed in border states and nationwide, who give out aid designed to attract even more migrants.”
Reps for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is clearly time to stop the NGO gravy train.
View From The Lair
The B.I.F.
There is a character roaming around DC (and actually the whole world, it just has a greater impact there.) This character instills ideas in various individuals that result in consequences unanticipated after the ideas are manifest. This character is known as “The Bright Idea Fairy” or in DC acronym speak, the BIF. The BIF is responsible for many ideas, all of which inspire remarkable actions, some entertaining, some not so much.
Frequently the inspiration causes an action that is preceded by “Here, hold my beer” followed by “It seemed like a good idea at the time.” Inebriation is certainly not required; leftists have been known to be afflicted by the BIF while doing any number of things that they perceive as “Good Works.” Granted, given that the origin of the aforementioned phrase “HHMB” might be construed to involve alcohol, it isn’t necessary. Realize that when a leftist is promoting “Good Works” what they mean is formulating a plan to extract more dollars from the populace (you) so that they can spend it on some agency, NGO, or scheme that benefits someone else (them.) Their idea of “Good Works” might, in the repeating words of Nancy Pelosi, involve “The Children”. Either changing their gender, or teaching them something wrong or useless, or exposing them to pedophiles. Or helping “downtrodden” terrorists in a third world sewer of a nation.
One of the greatest examples of the results of the BIF is FEMA. FEMA resulted in a variety of wins for the leftists. It sounded like it would help US citizens in need after a tragedy. Like after a train derails in East Palestine, or a hurricane flushes the western half of North Carolina into South Carolina. Remember – sounded like.
What FEMA actually is, is a virtue signaling construct designed to empower an ever-growing behemoth bureaucracy to absorb unimaginable amounts of YOUR money for the purpose of enhancing their leftist power and support THEIR “causes.” Their greatest cause is just “BeCAUSE They Can.”
Those of us educated before DOE (Department of Education. Another effect of the BIF) might remember going to school and into public buildings with large “CD” signs. That stood for Civil Defense. The CD was a state -not federal – based response system that utilized local and state resources, sometimes receiving financial aid from the Feds, sometimes assistance from the National Guard or Army Corps of Engineers, but primarily local and state response. FEMA replaced that. Not because it didn’t work, but because it did. How else could the “Good Works” people get their hands on more power and money while having the support of those who might need it. Not that they would get it.
Giving this power (and money) to the Feds reinforces the words of President Reagan “The most fearsome words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.’” What he really wanted to say was “I’m from the government and here to piss you off”.
ciao
The Snark
CONSISTENCY! OR THE LACK THEREOF!
Author: Jerry Schill
Last month I explained the chronological journey of our memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. We ended the post with our first “family” visit with the neurologist and her comment to “treasure the memories”.
One consistent thing about this disease is that nothing is consistent. We have an attached garage to the house and a two-stall garage out back where the workshop is. There was a period when Pam was my shadow, even following to the bathroom. She was very unsure of everything and was frightened if I was out of sight. When going out to the garage she would follow me there, and it was hard to get her to sit down for a while. While that may seem endearing, it was downright aggravating when trying to work on anything especially if it involved moving or working on a vehicle. That went on for quite some time, but it has evolved to where now it’s hard to convince her to go outside. If I’m working in the yard or the garage, I like to be able to keep a close eye on her for a number of reasons, but I also like her to get out and get fresh air. While this change happened over time, I didn’t really notice until one of the kids mentioned to me that Mom wasn’t following me around like she used to.
Taking meds has gone from easy-peasy to quite a challenge. There is one pill that has been the most problematic, and after you’re convinced it’s swallowed you find it under the table under the recliner or in the bedroom. It’s a pill that does not dissolve easily so she kept it under her tongue until we were not looking. As a result, I now grind her morning pills and dissolve them in very warm milk or a hot drink. It’s better to dissolve and add to cereal because it has a very bitter taste. It’s been working very well, although grinding some pills isn’t recommended. Sometimes you just must take the best, maybe not perfect, option.
Me and the kids agreed that her condition was progressing, so we made another appointment with a different neurologist in March 2018. Again, it was a family visit that came about after more testing. The new diagnosis went from Mild Cognitive Impairment to dementia. One of the kids asked about her driving and he strongly cautioned against it. I told the doctor that she hasn’t shown any problem driving up to this point, but he said the problem comes when she’s on her way to go shopping and encounters a detour due to an accident. She could end up miles away and he cited some examples of unnamed patients who did just that.
I’ve heard of many examples of loved ones who have gone through a literal hell when taking the car keys. However, I didn’t have that problem. Pam didn’t offer any resistance at all, but of course, it now meant more duties for me to do the driving. She was still able to shop, it was just the driving that was the problem. Now shopping wasn’t without it’s challenges as well, but we’ll cover that next month.
Investigating The Cause Of “Broke”
In recent days we are learning a lot about how Washington, D.C. works. Most of it is not surprising, although the volume and depth of the corruption we are uncovering is a little unnerving.
On February 13th, Breitbart posted an article about changes being made at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Ric Grenell is currently serving as the interim executive director of the Kennedy Center.
The article reports:
Opened in 1971, the center was named in 1964 as a memorial to assassinated President John F. Kennedy. It often hosted woke events during the Biden administration. Situated on the eastern bank of the Potomac River down the road from Georgetown, its exterior was also lit in a rainbow color light display.
“Ric shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture, and will be overseeing the daily operations of the Center,” Trump posted on social media. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST. RIC, WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS!”
The Kennedy Center has a $240 million dollar budget, yet has zero cash on hand, the source told Breitbart News.
It’s difficult to have a budget of $240 million and have no cash on hand.
The article notes:
Grenell has already made changes to the budget. He fired several highly paid executives and slashed the payroll by $2.4 million, the source added.
The fired executives include the Center’s former president and general counsel.
He will apparently hire new staff with salaries six figures lower than the salaries of those previously in the executive roles.
New members of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees were also announced.
Those include President Donald Trump, Susie Wiles, Dan Scavino, Allison Lutnick, Lynda Lomangino, Mindy Levine, Usha Vance, Pamela Gross, John Falconetti, Cheri Summerall, Sergio Gor, Emilia May Fanjul, Patricia Duggan, and Dana Blumberg.
I am looking forward to a Kennedy Center that spotlights the best of American artistic talent.
The Future Of The DOGE Cases
On Monday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the court cases the Democrats have created to slow the project of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The article reports:
Attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday that many of the injunctions blocking actions by President Donald Trump, ranging from his executive orders to his efforts to address wasteful and fraudulent spending, will be thrown out on appeal.
The Trump administration is appealing injunctions imposed by federal judges that targeted the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order ending birthright citizenship, among others. Dershowitz said during “The Dershow” that the cases will eventually be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Nobody ever said that our system of checks and balances would make it easy to govern or would make it efficient to govern. No, no, the design of our system of checks and balances was to create enough power to govern effectively while, at the same time, denying any one part of our government enough power to create a tyranny. So we have to counter our system of checks and balances, and it’s working, even today, as we speak,” Dershowitz said. “The president issues executive order after executive order after executive order, and what do the states do? They get their attorneys general to bring a lawsuit.”
The article concludes:
“People keep forgetting, the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy, the alphabet agencies. They are not an independent branch. They are part of the executive, and the executive is the president. Now, it’s complicated, because Congress created many of these agencies,” Dershowitz said. “For example, you know some of them, Federal Communications Commission, federal security, federal drug, those are created by Congress, but they’re part of the executive department. Some of the people are confirmed by Congress, and so your argument is you can’t fire them, only Congress can unconfirm them, but that’s never been the rule. For example, the head of the FBI is confirmed, and all cabinet members are confirmed by the Senate, yet the president can fire any of those heads of agencies at his whim. He doesn’t even have to have a reason to do it.”
I wish Congress and the judges would read the Constitution and decide to follow it.
When The News Only Tells A Part Of The Story
On February 13th, Hot Air posted an article illustrating the spin some of the media is using to try to sway public opinion about the cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Although one of the stories sounds plausible, it really doesn’t show the entire picture.
The article states:
Sarah Newey, the global health security correspondent for the Telegraph based in Bangkok, Thailand, filed this report about the first victim of Elon Musk and DOGE’s USAID cuts.
Here’s the takeaway.
A 71-year-old woman has died after her oxygen supply was cut off when the United States announced a freeze on aid funding.
Pe Kha Lau, a refugee from Myanmar living in a displacement camp in neighbouring Thailand, died four days after she was discharged from a USAID-funded healthcare facility operated by the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
She is thought to be one of the first people to have died as a direct result of Washington’s decision to freeze all funding for aid projects for 90 days.
Her family told Reuters that she had frequently been sent to hospital in the last three years as she was dependent on a supply of oxygen, but was sent home after the IRC received a “stop-work” order in late January.
So let’s take a closer look.
The article continues:
…The NGO that was providing the money for the oxygen tank is the International Rescue Committee. They run the clinic Ms. Lau visited to get her oxygen. Here’s what you need to know about IRC.
Its president and CEO is David Miliband, a former Labour Party member of British Parliament who was in leadership, serving as Defence minister for a time. Being an NGO, they have to file 990 disclosure forms, which include the salaries of all senior officers. Mr. Miliband is bringing down, depending on the year, between $1.1 and $1.2 million dollars annually. The rest of the 11 named officers? None make less than $283,000 and range up to $440,000.
Also, from their 990 submission, for the tax year 2021, the most recent data posted online, this was their financial status – a little over $1.3 billion in revenue, including $728.3 million in government grants. In 2021, they had $527 million in assets, $210 million of it in cash, and $119 million in securities. And yet we’re led to believe by the Telegraph that this woman’s death is on Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s hands because she was literally starved of oxygen to save a buck or two. The cost of an oxygen tank for personal consumption? Between $75 and $150 dollars.
So what have we gotten for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on a former Labour MP’s charity? Antisemitism and a push for allowing more illegal immigration into the United States.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. I don’t think the problem here is Elon Musk freezing the USAID budget. I think the problem is misplaced priorities within the International Rescue Committee. I am not convinced that they are rescuing anyone except the people running the organization.
Pay Attention To Who Is Screaming The Loudest
President Trump and Elon Musk have certainly shaken things up in Washington. You would think everyone would get on board with cleaning up fraud and waste in the government and cutting spending. It kind of makes you wonder why anyone would oppose those things. Well, we are starting to find out why.
On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about one group who is opposed to all of the sunlight currently shining on government expenses. I know that this is an incredible coincidence, but one of the groups opposed to looking into and cutting the spending has received a lot of money from the government agency doing the spending.
The article reports:
It might be easier to keep a list of who in the Establishment DOESN’T get USAID funding than those who do.
As everybody in the Elite screams from the top of their lungs about the injustice of it all, it turns out that cuts to USAID are so offensive to them because USAID is nothing but a piggy bank for every damn one of them.
The article includes the following:
That might explain the following:
The article notes:
From what I can gather, about half of the ABA’s revenue comes from government grants, including grants from USAID. I had no idea.
Senator Kennedy, who can always be counted on for interesting comments, is quoted on X:
The article concludes:
I want to see where every dollar goes. Every self-righteous organization, by complaining, is outing itself as yet another grifter that subsists off the hard work of the people they are working to suppress.
This is a war between the Establishment and the people. Nothing less.
Stay tuned and get out the popcorn!